


I wish I were you

by fanetjuh



Category: Elisabeth - Levay/Kunze, Tanz der Vampire - Steinman/Kunze
Genre: Gen, Salon
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-01-26
Updated: 2013-01-26
Packaged: 2017-11-27 00:41:59
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,781
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/656108
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/fanetjuh/pseuds/fanetjuh
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Rudolf meets three students from the university of Königsberg in the Library and he decides to offer them the night of their life, while wishing he would lead their lives...</p>
            </blockquote>





	I wish I were you

**Author's Note:**

> This fanfic was supposed to be funny and is based on the staging of the Frau Wolf Scene in the Vienna Revival production of Elisabeth seen in the last week of December 2012. Starring: Rory Six (Cover Rudolf, Rudolf Affaire Mayerling), Riccardo Greco (Cover Alfred, Tanz der Vampire), Max Niemeyer (Cover Alfred, Tanz der Vampire) and Gernot Romic (Cover Alfred, Tanz der Vampire and Cover Rudolf, Elisabeth). I tried to use as much elements of all their different characters and all their different ways of portraying them as possible and it turned out to be a lot more dramatic than I originally planned.

He glanced over the newspaper behind which he was hiding. He liked glancing at people. Especially if those people didn’t know they were glanced at. Especially if for one second he wasn’t the person being glanced at. For a brief second he wasn’t the crown-prince of Austria-Hungry, of whom no-one seemed to believe he was capable to do anything useful. For a brief second he was just one of the students at the university.

Secretly Rudolf dreamed about being able to lead the life the young boys around him could lead. They were free to dream what they wanted, to think what they wanted, to say what they wanted. They were free to develop their own ideals and to make them true, to fight for the things that were worth fighting for. They had no glancing eyes in their back following every step they made. He would give everything to switch places with them, even just for one day.

Rudolf’s eyes found a group of three young students being all busy with their books. He knew the students. He had seen them more often in the library, speaking with that typical east Prussian tongue, making him suspect they were from the university of Königsberg. He smiled when seeing how they were all sucked up in their work, like there was no world around them.

Rudolf looked around him with shrinking eyes. The library was emptier now the sun had disappeared behind the horizon and the little bit of light of only a handful candles made it almost impossible to read a word. It adorned the three exchange-students that they still tried, although it seemed to rudolf that it was more out of boredom than out of perseverance. 

Vienna wasn’t a city to bore yourself. Even more, Rudolf liked the city at night the most. When the theatres welcomed all the people that wanted to escape reality, when the men with high hats hid their faces in their jackets on their way to one of the salons where they would find more pleasure than in their own marriage. Three handsome young boys didn’t belong behind the books in candlelight. They should have a close look at the city, and the women, a really close look.

“What are you guys doing in the library at this time?” Rudolf folded his newspaper and talked to the boys with a secure, but little bit surprised voice.  
“Studying...” The lang, dark boy sounded like this was not his idea of spending the evening when answering.  
“You really have nothing better to do in this wonderful city?” Rudolf looked at the other two boys, watching like they saw water on fire. “The opera, the theatre, a melange in an old Kaffehaus or...” He raised his eyebrows meaningful and smiled. 

The youngest of the three, not that tall but with a natural charm, blushed slightly, but Rudolf also sensed some curiosity and a twinkle in his eyes.  
“We would want too, but we have not enough money to spend it on things like that...” the boy with the blond curls smiled at him. “On the opera and the theatre, I mean.”

Rudolf couldn’t suppress a smile and meant to see a very well known longing in the eyes of the long dark boy. Being a crown-prince had a lot of disadvantages and Rudolf cursed it with heart and soul, but it had one big advantage. If he wanted to escape from himself and the world around him, money wasn’t the problem and his visits to the best salon of the city was maybe not something his father would do, but he didn’t forbid it. It was one of the only things he didn’t forbid.

“What do you think about going to a salon with me, with me paying of course.” Rudolf liked being among normal people. Or even better, he liked seeing normal people wonder themselves about the luxury in which he was allowed to live. He couldn’t wait for the looks of the boys when they would enter the salon. This was almost even better than what would wait for them in the salon itself. 

The three boys looked at eachother and Rudolf saw the somehow uncomfortable look from the youngest boy, the somehow ashamed look from the blond boy and the dark boy using all the persuasion he had to talk the others into this. Rudolf was surprised how much the boys differed from eachother, but he knew that it was exactly what made people beautiful. Everyone was different. Everyone was most pretty if he had the freedom to bloom. Rudolf feared he would be the button to jump forever, but it didn’t take away the joy he could feel when others could shine.

“Let’s just do it!” The dark boy stood up, secure and full of power, and hit the shoulders of the others. “This is gonna be fun!” The others didn’t seem that certain about that, but stood up too.  
“We have to change clothes, don’t we?” The youngest boy looked a bit surprised at Rudolf and his voice sounded weak and nervous. Rudolf nodded.  
“Wear your best clothes, cause this will be a night you won’t forget. I’ll wait here for you.”

Rudolf looked to the boys while they wandered away to change clothes. For Rudolf those nights at the salon weren’t as special anymore and to be honest, some of the girls started to bore him to death. He hoped that it would be different to experience the evening through the eyes of boys for which it wasn’t as normal. For which the girls were exciting. Who wouldn’t know where to look. For whom a salon would suffice to forget reality.

He bend over the newspaper again until he heard the slamming door and the boys entered again in their most beautiful black ties, with the high hats in their hands. The youngest still seemed uncomfortable and insecure, but his legs and feet being restless proved that he was also very enthusiast and had some hidden desires deep within him. The blond boy looked like he still wasn’t convinced that this was a good idea, but wanted to make the best of it. While the dark boy looked ready for this, all secure and with a straight back.

Rudolf directed the boys without words to the main entrance of the university and snapped his fingers to order his carriage in front of them. The boys watched their eyes and Rudolf realised they had no idea with whom they were actually talking and he wasn’t planning to give them any ideas. For one second he just wanted to be one of them, a normal student wanting an evening out for once.

There was a slightly tensed silence in the carriage. The youngest boy reminded him a bit about himself. He was a bit shy, but had that flickering in his eyes that fascinated Rudolf endlessly. He hoped that the boy would get the chance to bloom and to do that what Rudolf couldn’t do. The blond boy had something charming and friendly that Rudolf couldn’t fully interpret. His eyes were friendly and his lips curled into a careful smile. But he didn’t seem comfortable for the full hundred percent. 

Eventually Rudolf stared at the dark boy, staring out of the window and looking very secure. He didn’t seem to fit between the other two boys, like he had experiences they still need to face. Like he shook the insecurity that belonged to the young student-years. Like he knew what was waiting for him, like he had more to spend than the other, less sorrows. This boy knew what he wanted and didn’t hesitate at all. Rudolf wished to be a little bit more like him. Wished that he got the chance to be like him.

The carriage stopped in the hidden street in front of a salon that looked like normal people had nothing to do over there. It was the only safe spot of the aristocracy, of the rich ones, of the directors and the generals. The place of which everyone knew it existed, but of which no-one knew what was exactly happening behind the closed doors. Of which no-one needed to know what happened behind the closed doors.

The driver opened the doors and Rudolf left only after his guests. “Don’t hesitate tonight, boys, all costs are mine!” He hit the two shy boys on their shoulders and tried to encourage them with a smile. The dark boy laid his hand softly and gently in the neck of the youngest and pulled him with him.  
“You’re gonna like this, believe me!”  
Rudolf entered the salon, where he knew every girl already, next to the blond boy.

Rudolf nodded polite when he met people he knew, while his eyes followed every movement the three boys made. The dark boy scanned the room and the girls purposeful. He saw the look, knowing what he was looking for and waiting for a moment to find it. The blond boy stood on the side and enjoyed in his own way, like he didn’t want to admit that he was secretly longing for this.

Eventually his eyes met the childlike enthusiasm from the youngest boy, who didn’t know where to look and couldn’t keep his hands from longing desire. He was breathtaking. The young boy seemed to see everything for the first time, seemed to experience things for the first time and didn’t seem to realise that this was all in his reach now. He walked from left to right and it didn’t surprise Rudolf that the boy was liked by the girls and that they offered him all kind of help to turn him on, to get even more in the mood.

While Rudolf ensured the owner of the salon that he would pay everything tonight, he winked at the girl that he usually chose to spend the evening with to make clear that she would be his tonight. In the mean time he enjoyed how the young boy picked his girl with longing eyes and Rudolf had to admit that the boy had a good taste. How lovely it would be to be him. Not chained, not bounded, not broken by the world around you, not cursed by birth and origin, not restricted and not drowned in cold water. Just a normal boy with a great future waiting for him. Just a normal boy for whom women are something new, something to be wondered about. For whom the world was innocent and love the highest goal.

Luckily there was at least someone in the world living the life Rudolf would have loved to live.


End file.
